Buzzer Beaten

On a weekend full of "March Madness" buzzer beaters, the Carolina Hurricanes pulled off a buzzer beater of their own with a goal by Jamie McBain with less than 1 second remaining in overtime. For McBain, it was twice as good because it was also his first career NHL goal. This was only a fitting ending for a rather flat performance from the Pens, who looked sluggish throughout the game despite recording 25 shots on goalies Manny Legace (who left the game due to injury) and Justin Peters. The first period was exceptionally bad for Pittsburgh, as they gave up a goal to Zach Boychuk to give the Canes a 1-0 lead at intermission. The second looked like it would be the same way, until the Pens got a late powerplay goal by Jordan Staal off of a beautiful feed from Alexei Ponikarovsky. The Pens managed to kill off a few crucial penalties in the first part of the third peiod, and Evgeni Malkin scored his 24th goal of the season to give the Pens a 2-1 lead with less than 7 minutes remaining. The Canes were far from done, however. Their comeback began when Joni Pitkanen scored with 4 minutes to go to tie the game up at 2-2. Thankfully, the Pens were able to kill a late penalty to send the game into overtime and get one important point in the standings. The points will still be important, but become less of a focus as the Pens begin "rivalry week" next week beginning with the Detroit Red Wings next Monday in Joe Louis Arena.